Simultaneous determination of arsenic, cadmium, copper, chromium, nickel, lead and thallium in total digested sediment samples and available fractions by electrothermal atomization atomic absorption spectroscopy (ET AAS)

► Simultaneous determination of total and available content of heavy metals in sediments by ET AAS. ► Optimization was performed using a 33 Box-Behnken factorial design. ► Conditions for analyzing matrices from the modified BCR scheme and total digestion were optimized. ► The method was validated using reference samples of sediment CRM NCS DC 73315, LKSD 4 and BCR-701. ► Time of analysis was significantly decreased and the method is useful for environmental research.